Changampuzha Krishna Pillai (10 October 1911 – 17 June 1948) was a celebrated Malayalam poet from Kerala, India, known for his elegy Ramanan which was written in 1936 and sold over 100,000 copies.
It is a long pastoral elegy, a play written in the form of verse, allegedly based on the life of Changampuzha's friend Edappally Raghavan Pillai.
Born on 10 October 1911 in Edappally, presently part of Kochi city, to a Malayali Nair family,[1] Changampuzha Krishna Pillai had his elementary education there itself.
Later, after working as a clerk in Military Accountant's Office at Pune and at Kochi, he went to Chennai for studying law, which he could not complete due to financial problems.
His legendary pastoral elegy, Ramanan was sold more than 100,000 copies, a record that still stands firm in Malayalam.
Famous Malayalam critique Joseph Mundassery who was the first Education Minister of Kerala State and also the first Vice-Chancellor of Cochin University, was highly impressed reading 'Ramanan', and wrote his own introductory remarks for its 15th reprint praising the elegy.
Changampuzha's other famous works include Vazhakkula, Divyageetham, Yavanika, Bashpanjali, Manaswini, Sankalpakanthi, Devageetha, Spandikkunna Asthimatam, Udyana lakshmi, Patunna Pisachu, novel Kalithozhi and others.
Finally in 1948, on the rainy day of 17 June at half past 3 pm, he died at the age of thirty-six and nine months.
is my failure(കപട ലോകത്തിലാത്മാർത്ഥമായൊരു ഹൃദയമുണ്ടായതാണെൻ പരാജയം) Last night, I slept on the smile of a flower bud(ഇന്നലെ രാത്രിയിൽ ഞാനൊരു പൂമൊട്ടിൻ മന്ദസ്മിതത്തിൽ കിടന്നുറങ്ങി) Changampuzha's most famous work Ramanan has been converted into a movie going by the same name in 1967.